


It all Started with a RomCom

by OrchidPeach560 (Miss_Webb)



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Drama, Everyone's a love sap, Love, M/M, Other, Romance, Venom is very curious, eddie is confused, they get a cat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2019-08-29 03:32:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16736280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Webb/pseuds/OrchidPeach560
Summary: Eddie is just finally settling into his new life, single, with a symbiotic parasite living off him. It's quite nice, and oddly domestic. Having a curious mind attached to him at all times actually manages to be fun.Until it isn't.(Marked Mature but may turn Explicit for possible future smut that may be added)This idea is compiled of prompts I received on tumblr





	1. Chapter 1

The tv was playing low because Venom didn’t like it loud. It wasn’t hurting him per say, it just annoyed the symbiote. Eddie didn’t care, he heard it clear enough and he had subtitles. He only got distracted from the movie when Venom would occasionally move, tugging on the thick black tendril that connected them. One particular push and Eddie’s leg was pulled over the edge of the couch and he yelped as his balance was thrown off and he clutched to the cushion for dear life. He sighed, sitting up looking over the back of the couch at the symbiote.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to catch the birds.” Venom answers, not bothering to turn around. The window was open and sitting on the sill were two grey pigeons. Venom was only a foot away, and it was clear he was trying to approach them stealthily. Not that he had to, those birds weren’t scared of people. You could sit right next to one and it wouldn’t move unless you shoved it.

“Well stop, it’s too far, you almost killed me.”

“Lies.”

“Did you not just hear me scream for my life?”

“You scream like that all the time. Very embarrassing for us.”

“ _‘Very embarrassing for us’_ ” he mocks in a deep voice sticking his tongue out, before pulling his leg back over the couch, pulling venom back another foot.

“Snacks.” Venom complained.

“No. You can have tater tots. They’re right here.” He points to the coffee table in front of them. He’d made them twenty minutes ago, they’re no doubt cold by now, but he knows the symbiote doesn’t care with the way he practically inhales them.

“Meat, I want meat.” Venom complains.

Eddie sighs, “Look if you want meat we can go to the store and get them as soon as the movie is over, okay?”

Venom nods, giving one last longing look to the pigeons before turning back to the couch and sitting next to Eddie. It was nice to have a presence and a body only vaguely connected to his. It’s been a long six months of practicing to maintain this. It's a good way to let Venom stretch his legs so to speak.

It started with just a head, or randomly an arm just sticking out from somewhere on Eddie’s body, slowly more limbs,  and then those limbs begin to connect. Venom looks like a person. Well, as much like a person as a pitch black symbiote with fifty teeth and a tongue longer than a foot can look. He doesn’t stand as tall or look as large as he does when he simply covers Eddie. It’s almost like a deflated version of him. The body gets thinner and thinner the further he gets from Eddie, and if he goes too far, the connection breaks. It’s only about three feet of distance they can get from each other before either one is pulled or it gets painful. But they’ve been working the limit, and it’s comfortable like this. Just one tendril between them, connecting them, but also allowing them to be separate.

Eddie lies back, kicking his feet up and dropping them down on Venoms legs. The symbiotes skin isn’t tough, but also not completely liquid.  It was a mix of silly putty or play-doh, Venom had the ability to harden or almost completely liquify at will. Eddie often found himself poking at the strange texture when he was bored. Venom didn’t seem to mind, so eventually, it just became a habit.

He turns his attention back to the TV once he settles, and he and Venom watch in relative silence. Until they get to the dramatic raining kiss scene, with declarations of love.

“I don’t understand this movie.” Venom declares turning to Eddie.

“You don’t? What’s not to understand? It’s a romantic comedy. Boy meets girl, the girl is in a complicated unhappy relationship, boy tries his hardest to show her there’s a better life than the one she’s about to commit to. He nearly fails, and then bam, kiss and sex, and marriage, happy ever after.”

“This is love?”

Eddie grimaces at the emotion of disappointment and confusion coming from Venom. “Yes but no. This is a movie, you can’t learn things about the world from a movie. It’s overdramatic and overplayed. Love can sometimes be this way but there are other ways, other plots, other meet-cutes, other forms of romance, other sexualities. Not everything is running at each other from a long distance or a forbidden lust. Sometimes it’s easy, you just… look at someone and know.”

“Is that how you feel about Anne?”

Eddie looks at the ring on his index finger. He still hadn’t taken it off. “It started easy with Anne, but now it’s complicated.”

“So, you’re going to almost lose and then win her?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “I already lost. It’s too late.”

“You’re sad.”

Sometimes Eddie hates having someone who can feel his emotions. “It’s because you won’t let me finish the movie in peace.”

“But I don’t understand, you were in love, and it didn’t end happily ever after. Was it not love?”

“It was, sometimes it’s not enough or it doesn’t work out.”

“Humans are complicated creatures.”

“Says the alien living off me.” He rolls his eyes and turns back to the movie. Sure enough, sex scene. He rolls his eyes remembering the low rating, not even a boob on screen. God, it’s been so long since he’s seen a pair of boobs in real life. Hell, it’s been so long since he’s seen them virtually. He didn’t need it when he was with Anne, and now that he has Venom he hasn’t been comfortable enough to even entertain the idea. Venom is so curious he’d ask Eddie about it until the poor fool eventually had to introduce the symbiote to porn.

His eyes go wide when a large black hand lands on the armrest in front of his head, and another on the other side, the symbiote looming over him.  He smiles when he looks up at Venoms face directly over his. The symbiote so demanding for attention when he wants answers, it's funny. It also tickles as the dark line that connects them moves up his leg to his abdomen, growing in size the closer they are, leaving their torsos connected, molding into one another.

“What?”

“Why make movies about a feeling that causes pain and sadness and doesn't end happily?”

“Because it sometimes does end happy. Love is…” He tries to look at anything other than Venom as he struggles to collect the words, but the Symbiote blocks the sightline to anything else and he gives up. “It’s a complex emotion, and it’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t felt it and isn’t even human.” He shrugs. 

“I can feel anything you can feel.”

“Yeah.” Eddie nods.

“So you feel love and I will understand.”

“I do feel love, for Anne.”

“But that is sad, failure love. I want to feel movie love.”

Eddie laughs. “I can’t just go out and find someone to fall in love with.”

“Why not?”

“Because that’s not how love works. You don’t find it, it finds you.”

Irritation and mild frustration flowed between them, it was so much easier to feel the closer they were. “I can’t just make myself fall in love okay? But…” He considers Venom’s curiosity. “But we could go through all the motions, do the things people do when they are in love. You might be able to understand it more then.”

“Okay, what do we do?”

Eddie thinks. “Well, normally after you meet someone you like, you go on a date. How does that sound?”

“What do we do on a date?”

Eddie smiles. “We can get meat.”

Happiness passes between where they are connected, and Eddie feels it like a vibration through him.

“Let’s go.”

_

It’s a small diner, not far from Eddie’s apartment. He used to go all the time before he and Anne broke up, it was where they went for date night once or twice. It seemed like the perfect place to take Venom for an educational lesson in how humans fall in love and all the things that come after.

He orders food at the counter, three cheeseburgers, meat as raw as possible but warm, with a side of fries and hot chocolate. Venom likes to imagine the meat was living before he ate it. Eddie doesn’t complain so long as they aren’t eating anything while it’s still alive. He still has flashbacks of the lobster incident. He slides into the booth in the far corner for some privacy and he looks at Venom face in his reflection in the window.

“So this is a date.” He doesn’t whisper the words, but he’s mindful to keep his tone low. There aren’t many people in the diner and the ones that are, are several tables over, and the booth provides some cover.

“And now we just eat?”

“Well yeah, but normally on a date there’s more talking, like getting to know one another.”

“I already know everything about you.”

Eddie rolls his eyes. “You don’t know _everything._ ”

“I do.”

“Oh really? What’s my middle name?”

“Allen Charles.”

He looks at his reflection in shock. “How did you know that?”

“The moment you think it, I know it.”

“That’s… not fair. You get to know everything about me, but I know nothing about you.”

“Ask, and I will tell you.”

“I don’t know what to ask.” He sighs. “Start from the beginning? Like where are you from? You and the other symbiotes?”

“Well, symbiote is a name humans have given us, we are also known as the Klynatar, our home planet is unknown to me, as I was not among the first, and we always traveled to planet to planet, conquering and eating then moving on. We were aimless and adrift when the humans happened upon our asteroid. Riot thought it was a great opportunity to find another planet to eat.”

“Why did you change your mind?” Eddie asks, pausing when the waitress comes over giving him his food, and asking if there was anything else he needed. After a no, and a thank you, he turned back to the window. “I know you said it was me, but… why? What did I do?”

“You’re a loser.” The short answer comes but thankfully is quickly followed up. “You’re alone and you don’t fit, despite being surrounded by your kind. You're different.” Eddie smiles, eating a few fries as Venom talks.

“A lot of people are different on this planet, ‘bunch of misfits running around.”

“You’re special.” Venom says.  “I’ve never had a host who spoke to me, who worked with me. Everything was always about eating and destroying. But you changed that. You make me want to stay. You make me happy.”

Eddie dips his finger into the melted marshmallows that sat on the surface of the hot chocolate and licked it off the digit, trying to earn him some time to think of a response, as he finds himself failing to.

“Yeah? Well, you uh- make me happy too. When you aren’t being a pain in the ass.” He laughs and begins eating the rest of the food before him.

Halfway through the second burger, Eddie starts getting mental images of things he’s never seen before.

“W-what is this?”

“It’s the universe. There isn’t much to know about me, but I can show you where I’ve been.”

They spend the next hour like this, Eddie looking off into space being shown the images Venom provides in his mind’s eye. It’s like remembering, but they aren’t his memories.

He saw space, the stars, suns, moons, even the planets that Venom and the other symbiotes took over and ate. All of it new and mesmerizing. He would ask questions about the planets, and the symbiotes travel, and Venom answered every one. It was educational and entertaining. He paid for his dinner and left, realizing how late it had gotten while he and Venom talked, he smiled finding himself satisfied, it was a good date. Even if it was only to show Venom what a date was.

A thick droplet of rain landed on his cheek and he rubbed his hands together pulling his jacket tighter around his shoulders before beginning to walk back to the apartment.

“So now the date is over?” Venom asks a head forming out connected by his shoulder.

“Yeah, now the two would either go their separate ways or home together.”

“To join as one.”

“Hmm?”

“To mate.”

“Uhh,” He looks anywhere but Venom, trying his very best _not_ to thinking about ‘joining as one’ he doesn’t even know where Venom learned to phrase it like that.

“You read an article that referred to mating as joining.” Venom answers the mental question Eddie hadn’t even wanted to ask. “You are uncomfortable.” Venom states, feeling the waves of emotion coming from the human. “Is it the word? Should I use another? Sex, fucking, beast with two backs?”

“Oh, god, no, just- it’s more the topic of ‘mating’ altogether.”

Venom tilts his head. “Do you not enjoy mating? No wonder your love failed. I don’t know much of humans, but I do know mating is an important part of reproduction and survival of your species.”

“I’m not uncomfortable with mating, I just don’t want to talk about it with you For the record our species is doing well enough in the reproduction department. Not everyone needs to have kids. It’s not that dire.”

“Do you intend not to have kids Eddie?”

“I’m not sure that’s in the cards for me anymore.” He and Anne hadn’t spoken about kids, but he’s sure they might’ve sometime after they were married. But now she has Dan, and he’s got a subpar job, and a crappy apartment. Not to mention dating with a symbiote that keeps referring to the organs of humans as snacks may not be the best idea.

He turns away from Venom, looking up at the sky. It’s a nice night out, the moon peeks out between the thin rain clouds, and he smiles, chuckling softly.

“What is it?” Venom asks.

“Just thinking… this is another one of those romance things. You know uh, dramatic kisses in the rain.”

The symbiote brings himself out of Eddie knowing there is no one out around them to see them. They’re connected through his arm. The forearm down is enveloped in the symbiote completely, strangely it was like they were holding hands.

Venom stands tall, and he looks to the sky just as Eddie had done. “What does the rain have to do with love?”

Eddie laughs. “I actually don’t know. It’s just… something extra I guess. Makes the moment special somehow.”

“Show me.” Venom says, stepping closer, their connection grows stronger, web-like black lines crawl the rest of the way up his arm and spread out over his chest. Almost as if he’s been compelled, Eddie remembers every kiss he’s ever had or seen. It’s amazing how easy it is to remember things, and how vivid the memories are. It’s as if he lives them over again, the sounds clear, the smells strong, everything in sight heightened, every touch experienced again. “I want to feel it.” Venom says.

“There’s no one here for me to kiss.” 

“We are here.”

Venom's tongue reaches out and licked a curved uneven line up the side of Eddie's face, licking the rain from his skin. The tongue was rough and left a hot stripe of wetness in its trail. Eddie grimaced on a gasp, and when his mouth opened to inhale, Venom's tongue slipped inside with it.

Thankfully Venom didn’t try to stick it down his throat. The tongue was just a tasteless warm movement that invaded and explored him. It ran over his teeth, pressed to the inside of his cheeks, and wrapped around his own tongue, filling his mouth with just how long it was bending and curling. Venom pulls back a short while after when it becomes hard for Eddie to breathe.

He doesn't hesitate to bring the sleeve of his jacket up to his face and wipe away all the slobber Venom had left behind in his wake.

His emotions jumped between disgust, embarrassment, to realizing how turned on he was. His face was hot and flush because of it, despite the cool air and dropping rain. He cleared his throat eventually, as it seemed Venom was waiting for some sort of response, an approval or disapproval.

He felt it, their minds syncing up once again. Venom was anxious, but also excited. He really wanted to know if he did it right.

Eddie had to put aside his embarrassment and other feelings not worth repeating even mentally.

“I uh. I think technically that could be called a kiss, but it was… uh, too much tongue. Usually, more face and lip contact, involved, not just going for it.”

Venom nods, leaning forward again, Eddie begins to panic when he realizes Venom intends to try again.

“Woah, Woah! Teeth!” He reminds, frantically, having flashes of his face being torn apart, or his head bitten off. A long rough tongue is one thing, rows of teeth larger than his index finger is a whole other.

The ink-black skin formed over the symbiotes teeth as he leaned forward this time and they pressed together. The skin there didn’t feel any different than the black elastic feel on the rest of Venom, no softness or firmness no puckering, no parting of lips. But still, it was nice. For just a moment, droplets of rain fell on his back, and the warmth of Venom covered his entire torso, shielding his face from the rain, Eddie truly felt like he was in a movie. He felt safe, protected, and loved.

A car turned down the road and just as the shine from the headlights fell on Eddie’s body, Venom sank into him, leaving the human feeling unbalanced and hot all over.

He took a deep breath, running his hands through his hair to right himself before going home and taking a long shower, and doing his best not to wonder what the hell he was to make of all this.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, but it's okay because chapter three is already halfway done

There was a knocking on the door, but that’s not what woke him. It was the coiling tight in his chest of Venom waking him, preparing for a threat.

“Who is it?” Eddie asked between a yawn.

“Anne, and the boyfriend.” Venom answers inside his head. Eddie sits up stretching, and rolling his shoulder, feeling a few satisfying cracks, before getting out of bed and crossing the apartment to the door pulling it open.

“You’re not ready.” Is the first thing Anne says when they both take in Eddie’s appearance.

“Nope.” He agrees, turning from the door and heading for the kitchen, making coffee until Venom rumbles inside him, asking for hot chocolate instead. He could really use the caffeine, but Venom somehow gives him this energy boost when he eats or drinks whatever the symbiote asks for.

He’d almost forgotten about today. Anne had asked him a week ago when he would be free to hang out with them. It sounded really weird, but once she told him they were doing some shopping for Mr. Belvedere, he was all for it. It’d been so long since he’d seen that cat, he’d just jump at the chance to see him again.

Besides, it’s not the worst situation. Yeah, he misses Anne, but Dan isn’t a bad guy. He’s nice, cool, smart, and pretty handy when in need of medical attention; suffice to say, Eddie approved and didn’t mind being around the guy.

He turned back to the two when his hot chocolate was done. Taking a quick sip that burned his throat, but not enough to make him stop.

“So where are we going exactly?”

“The pet store.” Anne shrugs, a disapproving eye darting around the apartment. It’s a little messy, but it’s been worse. Between work and making sure Venom didn’t eat people he hasn’t had a lot of time to focus on cleaning. “Maybe dinner after.”

There’s a beat of silence between then before Dan speaks. “So how you been Eddie?”

“Good.” He takes a sip. “Works been good and- and just good.” He shrugs. Honestly, he wasn’t even that busy, he was just… so consumed in working, and if it wasn't working it was Venom, feeding his curiosity to know and see the world.

They spent days and nights talking, explaining things. But he couldn’t tell them that. He couldn’t tell them how he walked around the city for hours just showing Venom a bunch of random things the symbiote had never seen or experienced before. He couldn’t tell them it made him extremely happy to feel that hot jolt of excitement that passed through Venom and into him when they found something the symbiote liked. It was quite a feeling, to have rebounding emotions, that aren’t all your own, but they feel as if they are.

He downs the rest of the hot chocolate and sets the cup in the sink. “I’ll get dressed.”

It was getting easier not to say we when he referred to himself and Venom. Keeping it a secret was very hard at first, still is sometimes, but he’s managing.

The back seat was cramped, and Venom complained the entire time. Missing the motorcycle, and the feel of wind on his skin, and the way he could dip between cars and speed on the road. Eddie just willed the symbiote to remain calm and wait.

Once he walked through the doors, he realized that this might not actually be a good idea. The thought only cemented when Venom rumbled inside him whispering the word snacks.

“No, not snacks. Cute, adorable, living, breathing animals, that we will not be eating.”

“Not even just one?” Venom asks inside his head.

“Not even one.”

Anne looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes narrowing. He’d only whispered the words, but she had been hyper-aware around him for the last few months, always suspecting he was hiding something. She didn’t know what, he was sure that she wasn’t thinking it was Venom, there was no way she could know, and after all this time, her suspicions must have faded in that direction.

He wasn’t even sure why he was hiding Venom from her. It just seemed like the right thing. He suspects some of Venom’s reservations about the idea have bled over into him.

“She doesn’t like me.” Venom answers. A wave of memories pushes to the forefront of his mind. Standing in the room with the MRI machine. The way she used it to force Venom out. If there’s anything Venom doesn’t want, it’s to be pushed out again.

“I understand.” He whispers, while it’s not been easy having the symbiote inside him, he’s starting to realize he doesn’t want to go back to the way it was before. Alone. He had Anne yes before the two had broken up, and then there were his coworkers and friends. But it wasn’t the same. Having Venom was like having an extension of himself,  while the symbiote may not be better per se, at least not in the moral department, he’s more, he adds action and knowledge to Eddie’s life. He’s like an upgrade, moving them from just Eddie but to what they are as they become one.  Eddie refers to it as Eddie 2.0 and Venom refers to it just as Venom. It’s fine, not important, what was important were the cutest fluffiest cats Eddie had ever seen in his life.

“The lady said the whole litter just came in. They’ve had their shots and their tests came back fine. They just went available for adoption.”

Eddie turned into a five-year-old and instantly dropped to his knees to get a better look at the lower leveled cage, the kittens were playful, running at each other and wrestling. One cat was scared of him and ran to the far corner, but to brave one went right up to the cage door and stuck tiny paws through the gates.

“Oh hey, there cutie.” He smiled, letting the kitten nibble on his index finger.

” _Why are you letting the creature eat us?”_ Venom asked the curiosity hit him hard.

“I’m not.” He whispered.

_“It is, our finger is in its mouth.”_

“It’s just some cute harmless nibbling. Barely even hurts.” He smiles, meowing softly to encourage the kittens to do it. Anne crouches down next to him with a smile.

“Do you like her?” She asks gesturing to the kitten.

Eddie nodded. “I think I’m already in love.”

“That’s great.” Dan says, patting him on the back. “Because you’re taking her home.”

“What?”

“Look,” Anne says. “I know life has not really been the best to you. Everything with us, then that whole thing with Venom. I realized you must be in some need of companionship, and while I won’t stoop as low as trying to set you up on blind dates, I will get you a cat.”

“What am I even going to do with a cat?” Eddie laughs.

“The same thing you did with Mr. Belvedere, just make sure you don’t forget to feed this one okay? I won’t be around to remind you every day.”

 

_

 

He regrets this, he regrets everything.

He watches the kitten wobble from one side of the room to another. Excited and exploring the new area, often stopping to chew on a cord or shoestring. Eddie would have to get some scratchers and toys to keep her busy.  They’d only really gotten the essentials today. Litter box, food, bowls, and a bed that the animal would probably never use.

He smiles as the creature tips over, after making a miscalculated lunge for his toe. He leans down to pet her gently on the grey and black designs on her head. She allows herself to be pet for only a moment before jumping back and waving short sharp claws at the finger.

“What am I going to name you, huh?” He asks, going over a few names in his head. None of them felt right. This could take time.

“Why name it? We should eat it.” Venom suggests. 

“No.” Eddie snaps aloud, the kitten flinches at the harshness of the word and darts off under the couch. “No eating.” He repeats gently.

"Why not?"

“Because it’s… it’s a cat, I don’t want to eat a cat.”

Venom formed his own body, a foot from Eddie, bending down to look at the kitten that had taken to scratching the leg of the couch.

“Such a small tiny thing.” Venom says, studying it as it stopped and watched Venoms tongue move before running at it. Venom moved back but not quickly enough, Eddie burst into laughter at the sight as Venom stood, the kitten hanging onto Venom’s tongue by her claws with wide fearful eyes at all the movement.

Venom brought to large black hands up to hold the kitten so she would retract her claws and he met eyes with the animal. She sat up in his hands, and tilted her head to the side, almost studying Venom as much as the Symbiote studied her. Then she meowed once.

Eddie felt a warmth under his skin with a rush of energy and excitement.

“I think I like this creature, Eddie, let’s keep it.”

“That was the plan, but nice to know you’re on board.” He smiles. His stomach rumbles and he hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. “What do you want to eat?”

“Tater Tots.” Venom orders, kneeling down to the ground letting the kitten run around black long fingers, pouncing, scratching and nibbling. Eddie had an easy enough time reaching the kitchen with their one connecting tendril pulled from his hip. He felt everything that Venom experienced like a distant poke, or wind blowing on his stray hairs. Leaving him away but able to ignore.

They spent the rest of the day lazy like that, Eddie eating tater tots and Venom playing with the kitten that has yet to be named.

Eddie hadn’t felt this content in almost a year.


	3. Chapter 3

There was movement, Eddie rubbed his face into the pillow it was pressed into, and sturred awake. With a sharp breath, he looked around the darkroom for the source of what rose him. A moment goes by, another, then finally he hears it; the sound of sharp tiny nails darting across hardwood floors, and the hard thud of items and furniture being moved, becoming victim to an active pouncing kitten from outside the room.

“Cats” He mutters under his breath. He’d almost forgotten what it was like, hearing Mr. Belvedere dart around the apartment in the middle of the night. With that he pushed his face back into his pillow, preparing to sleep when he felt Venom sturr and separate from him. It was a small disconnect, the sensation was far beyond familiar at this point, as well asl the low emptiness he never allows himself to acknowledge. 

It’s good most times. Similar to losing a heavy weight. But moments where Eddie is tucked up in his bed sleep seeping back into his mind he wants the heaviness and that warm rumbling the symbiote brings.

“Where you goin’?” Eddie mumbled, voice thick with sleep.

“To look at the cat.”

Eddie shakes his head. “No,” He draws out the word in complaint. “Stay with me.” Eddie doesn’t even care how needy it sounds. He’s tired and he wants his symbiote to stay with him. 

It’s not too much to ask, is it?

Venom seems to hesitate, Eddie feels it, a noise vibrating through him that stopped with indecision. He was gearing up to ask Venom to stay again when the symbiote moved, formed body falling over Eddie like liquid but not sinking into his skin like usual, instead, it rests over him. A heavy, massaging, moving warmth. He groans contently, savoring the feeling before falling back to sleep.

_

He has vivid but broken dreams. Clear images with nonsensical meanings, that only make sense whilst in the dream, later to be forgotten and confused about events in orders and whys. 

There are feelings, the bright blinding sun, and pain radiating through him with low thuds. Sounds, muted and ear piercing. Hands, hot like fire, they pet him, coating his skin, burning. He realizes it’s his voice, he’s screaming, and the ability to yell out in pain leaves as it burns hotter. His skin melts off and what's left behind is a black layer. Not charred and burnt as he expected. But fluid and malleable. His new skin living, moving, _breathing_. It begins to fall from him in large drips. He tries reaching for them, but his hands drip away too, and he fades into nothing. 

_

He awakes with a small gasp, eyes forcing themselves open, and he can feel his heart rabbiting in his chest. His eyes dart around the room in quiet panic before the fear of losing himself faded as he realized it was all a dream. With a deep breath, he rubbed a hand over his face and looked down at himself. Venom still lying over his lower half. He reached out and gently petted the still sleeping symbiote. Venom rumbled, entire spread form moving with the sound of a growl like purr. Its that movement right over his pelvis that alerts him to the fact that he’s hard. He checks the clock on the nightstand, He’s got an hour before he needs to head into work. 

Venom wakes as Eddie climbs off the bed, and heads into the bathroom. The symbiote sluggishly gets dragged into the bathroom as he doesn’t build a form or sink into Eddie. It's their usual morning routine. It took months, but they’ve settled on showers being Eddie’s private time. Venom will always separate from him, and leaving Eddie to shower on his own. It’s the only time he masturbates anymore. He’s not having sex and he’s not sure how he’d feel with Venom all over, in and around him while he does it. The curiosity, the demanding nature, the lack of privacy, he’s not sure how he’d feel about that, so he stuck with this. 

It’s gotten to the point where he gets hard the moment the shower turns on. He undresses quickly and steps into the warming spray. He has the will power not to start until he’s mostly soaped up, he’s working against the clock, he still has to make breakfast before he leaves, or Venom will complain about hunger until lunch. 

He sighs quietly the moment he grips himself, strokes slick and slightly audible with soap and water over his hands. He works himself up quickly, losing himself in the feeling letting his mind wander to all the things that turn him on.

“What are you doing?”

Eddie flinches so hard at Venom’s presence he slips and nearly falls, he’s lucky Venom’s quick and catches him. 

“What!? No- don’t.” He struggles to cover himself as he gets his balance, feeling way too exposed. “Why- what do you want?”

“What are you doing?” Venom asks again. Forming himself, standing tall in the back of the shower. 

“I'm taking a shower.”

“I want to see.”

“No, why?” 

“You always feel good things, and make noises in the shower. I want to see. We should shower together Eddie.”

“Shower time is _my_ time. We agreed to this.”

“Don’t want to anymore. We shower together now.”

Eddie let out a bewildered sigh, turning from Venom to the steady stream of water and weighed his options, argue about this or get ready for work.

“I can’t argue about this right now buddy, but we will talk about this after work. Just give me five minutes.”

 “No.”

Venom stood there refusing to move, staring Eddie down for several seconds before the man gave up. Just moving back to quickly shower, ignoring his flagging erection, letting it fade without release, and then got out and ready for work. 

_

 

He didn’t talk to Venom the entire day. Just sent him low irritation whenever he could, and ignored the symbiote whenever he made comments. It was a petty but effective tactic, Venom hated being ignored, Eddie didn’t do it often, it was something he learned accidentally. He was just so driven one week, trying to keep his job, multiple upcoming deadlines, and the story he was working on was actually something he was passionate about. He was up all day, all night, he was out talking to witnesses and researchers, and much like always when he has a story he cares about, he stops taking care of himself, no showering, a lot less eating, he ignores his own body and need, and now by proxy, that meant Venom too.

The symbiote had not been happy about that development, and quickly put an end to such things. 

Now that he was doing it on purpose it was harder. He was lucky enough that he and Venom had fallen into a habit of talking with each other as little as possible when Eddie was at work, or around people that it mattered that he looked as sane as possible around. Like his boss and coworkers. 

It wasn’t until lunch when he had to put effort into ignoring Venom. Alone in the break room, Venom pushed, and pushed, talking and making requests. Requests that Eddie ignored. 

Venom wanted chocolate pudding, so Eddie grabbed vanilla. He ate it with lazy satisfaction at the breakroom table and thumbed through his phone. It buzzed in his hands moments later when he got a message from Dan. 

**> Got this for the cat, when can I drop it by?**

There was a photo attached of a small cat-sized tent and a few toys.

**Whenever is fine, thanks, I’m sure she’ll love them.**

**> Tomorrow afternoon then. You get around to naming her yet?**

**< Nope**

**> I can send a list of names if that helps**

**< Go for it**

He could feel Venom's own growing irritation when he chuckled at the list of names. It serves the symbiote right, being ignored, and not getting a say after how Eddie was interrupted this morning. He goes back to work with a headache not long after that. Venom’s complaints bounding across his skull like a bouncy ball. After several hours it faded, either he tuned it out or Venom got tired of it. Either way, he was able to complete his work in relative peace. 

Peace that shattered as he began his walk home.

“Eddie.” Venom’s voice echoed in his head, loud, and hard to ignore, but Eddie kept his pace steady, he didn’t answer. Eight hours of ignoring, this is his longest bout yet, and at this point, he’s mostly just testing himself to see how long he can go. He was beginning to think over ways to gain space from the symbiote when needed. How does one take a break from a being that lives within them?

He wasn’t paying attention as Venom separated from behind, knowing the coast was clear, and he was surprised at the feeling of his shirt being yanked, and as he was dragged back between two buildings as a cover from sight. 

“Wha- hey! Stop.” 

“No.” Venom shoved Eddie to the wall. Towering over him, snarling. He tried pushing back, but hands just went through Venom's torso, which then hardened, clutched onto his wrists, trapping him. 

“Stop it!” His voice cracked as he struggled. Venom's hand come up and grasped him around the neck.  

“Don’t ignore me, Eddie. I will _not_ be ignored.” Venom's eyes flickered and thinned threateningly. It would seem that Venom has had enough of Eddie’s silent treatment. But a stubborn side of Eddie wanted to continue, to spite Venom, and the dramatic measures to gain attention. Glaring back, Eddie remained silent. A car passed by during their standoff, and Venom’s body around Eddie’s wrists tightened, painfully, as if they were being crushed, and the had around his neck began to dig into his skin. 

And boy was it starting to really hurt. 

“Ow ow ow! Okay, fine! I’ll stop ignoring you!” With a roll of his eyes, and an exasperated -pained- breath, Venom releases Eddie’s hands, and he quickly pulls them back and holds them close to his chest, Venom’s ink-black hand still rests on Eddie’s neck but relaxed, no longer causing pain. A tendril rests around his waist, keeping him in place as he looks down at his hands. The skin is red and sensitive with warm pain.

“Can you let me go now?” His voice was tense, anger renewed. 

“No.”

Eddie lifts a brow. “Why not?”

“Because you like it, Eddie.” Venom leans closer, teeth coming dangerously close to Eddie’s face. “I can feel you trying not to think about it. About this.” The ‘s’ drags on like a snakes hiss, and Eddie doesn’t like the shiver that goes down his spine. Admittedly, had begun to get hard right as Venom shoved him against the wall, but it was more a fear erection than anything else. It wasn’t even a full erection. Not visible outside of his pants. Venom only knows because he can feel what Eddie feels, and it’s losing its strength with his anger.

“No- I- this isn’t- I don’t _like_ this. Get off me!” Eddie pushes at Venom, and despite not getting leverage on the symbiote, Venom lets him go, removing the tendril around his waist and the hand around his neck. Eddie’s feet get contact back with the ground, and he busies himself with straightening out his clothes and looking anywhere other than Venom.

They don’t exchange another word, even as Eddie storms back onto the sidewalk and Venom sinks into him. They walk home in silence. 

_

Anger now mellowed out into hollow silence, the key sliding into the apartment lock sounds louder than usual. The vibration of it in his fingers feels stronger than it should be. His blinks are slow, and he kicks off his shoes once inside the door. He heads straight for the bedroom, feeling too empty to do anything other than sleep. But before he makes it to the door, his feet stop themselves, Venom writhes in his arms and legs and there’s the mental tug of the symbiote reminding him they haven’t had dinner yet. With a sigh he obliges, warming up leftovers in the microwave and eating half of it, leaving the rest for Venom to finish off. Then he checked on the cat. Filling up the food bowl and water. Once again started for the room he felt another tug. 

“Eddie.” 

“What?”

“Movie.” 

Eddie rubs a hand over his eye. “I’m not in the mood tonight. I just- I just want to go to bed.” 

“You’re still mad.” 

“I don’t know what I am, okay? It was just a lot today.”

Venom separates from behind, and Eddie doesn’t turn. “You’re mad about the shower.” 

“I’m not mad about the _shower_. It’s just-” He balls his hands into fists before letting them go. “We agreed, and you can’t just bully your way in. That’s not how we do things. If you want something you have to say it. _Ask_.”

“You said you’d show me love.” 

Eddie pauses. “Yeah, so?” 

“In movie love, there is sex. But you won’t talk about it, and you try to hide it from me.” 

Eddie rubs a hand over his face. “Venom.” He shakes his head. “I’m not trying to hide it. I just- it's private, and as much as I’ve learned to live with you, and compromise, this is /my/ thing. I don’t think it’s something I want to share yet, if at all. I don’t.”

“But love.”

“You can have love without sex. People do it all the time.”

Venom keeps Eddie rooted to the spot. “You have love with sex, I want love with sex.” 

“I _had_ love with sex, look how that turned out! I haven’t had sex or a relationship in a year. I don’t even know why you want to learn from me since I’m so bad at it.” 

Venom walks around him, coming up face to face. “Because Eddie, we are the same.” Venom leans forward, pressing their foreheads together, and Eddie closes his eyes. Why is he so worked up about this anyway? It was one time, and yeah it was irritating, but not enough to be so dramatic about it. He allows his shoulders to relax, and he decides to let it go.

“You’re acting really weird lately, you know that?” He steps back, opening his eyes. “Let’s watch a movie alright?” 

The answering rumble was all he needed before Venom sank back into his skin and Eddie sat on the couch, turning the tv on and browsing for movies. Once he settled on one, he laid back and made himself comfortable. Venom didn’t separate from him again, but instead wrapped tendrils around each leg, up his torso and arms. It was a strange encompassing embrace, it felt nice. 

About twenty minutes into the movie Eddie fell asleep. Venom continued to watch, until it was over, then turned off the tv and carried Eddie to bed. When Eddie was set onto the bed he began to stir, barely. Not even opening his eyes.

“G'night babe.” He muttered weekly before a set of sort snores worked themselves out of his nose. Venom wrapped around Eddie just as they were on the couch.

“Goodnight babe.” He mirrored back with a rumble, and then they were both sleeping.


End file.
